Through the lens of the camera in remote mining sites in the Peruvian highlands

A freelance photography assignment took me to the remote mountain highlands of Peru in 1999, where, in addition to covering the brutal working conditions to which children and their parents are exposed in the mines, I learned about the myths and legends that permeate the lives of the miners. In sharing the myths and the lives of the inhabitants of the place, however, I must account for my role as an observer with a camera. In this paper I aim to provide a brief introduction to the culture, the myths and legends of the mining populations of the highlands as they were conveyed to me. I discuss some of the ethical concerns of using a camera to capture and convey child labour in the highlands and the ethics of photographic and humanitarian interventions.     

Psychophysical conditions and hormonal secretion in nurses on a rapidly rotating shift schedule and exposed to bright light during night work

Abstract

The psychophysical conditions of 15 young female nurses, working in a rapidly-rotating shift system (2-2-2-2), modified according to some psychophysiological criteria, and exposed to short period (4 × 20 min) of bright light (2350 Lux) during their night duty, were studied in order to evaluate their adaptation to night work and to test a possible positive effect on it of bright light. Subjective evaluations of work load and psychophysical conditions, performance measures, hormonal excretion (cortisol, 6-sulphatoxymelatonin and catecholamines), oral temperature and activity-sleep logs were taken during the shiftwork cycle, comprising one morning, one afternoon and two consecutive nights under normal and bright light. The results showed that this rapidly-rotating shift system had little effect upon the normal circadian rhythms of the body. Moreover, the lengthening of the night shift to 10 h can be considered to be acceptable, provided that work load is reduced and there are sufficient rest pauses available. On the other hand, the reduction to 7 h of the length of the day shifts and delayed start of the morning shift to 07:00 h appeared to be convenient both in relation to the work load and sleep duration. Some positive effects of bright light upon psychophysical conditions and performance efficiency were noted, while hormonal excretion and body temperature did not show any effect of bright light; in particular, melatonin excretion was not suppressed appreciably by the bright light used.